Are we there yet? How much longer?
As a young boy, my parents would often load everyone into the family car and
prepare for a trip to my grandparent’s farm. Living in the city, a visit to
the wide-open spaces of the farm would always fill my brothers and me with a
great deal of excitement, as it represented the opportunity to run through the
fields, explore the old farm machinery that laid half-buried in weeds, moo at
the cows, climb trees, and walk the ditch banks.
Not only were there fields, barns, and trees to explore, but my grandmother
would always ensure that dinner was followed by fresh baked pie and ice cream.
With all of these things waiting for us and the impatience of being a child,
before the car was even out of the driveway, someone would invariably ask,
“Are we there yet?”
Either my father or mother would patiently respond, “We’re almost there”,
and, “It won’t be much longer.” To occupy our young minds, my parents would
encourage us to play games, such as identifying the crops in the fields, trying to
be the first to spot those infamous Volkswagen beetles, and making the sounds
of barnyard animals. We would also sing choruses, which probably made my
parents desire a better radio.
We would survive the bumps in the road, the heat in the summer, and the cold
in the winter, to finally arrive at my grandparent’s farm, where the journey
would be quickly forgotten, as we began to enjoy ourselves.
John 14:2-3 states:
“In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told
you. I go to prepare a place for you…..I will come again, and receive you
unto myself: that where I am, there ye may be also.”
When we become Christians, we embark on a journey that ultimately ends in
Heaven, where we will spend eternity in fellowship with God.
As we walk this earth, the bumps in the road often appear as the loss of
loved ones, financial difficulties, physical ailments, and other trials that are
common to both the Christian and non-Christian.
As Christians, our journey through this life is also filled with bumps that
assume the form of struggle against immorality, persecution, and other trials
that result from following God.
When we face the “bumps” in this life and it seems as though there is no end,
there is often the tendency to raise our voices, in prayer and as children,
to God and ask, “Are we there yet?”
Relevation 7:17 reassures:
“God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.”
Whether our trip to Heaven takes us 20 years or 40 years or 80 years, as
Christians, we have the assurance that God won’t wipe away just some tears, but
He’ll wipe away ALL tears.
Heaven. There will be no tears, only joy. There will be no pain, only peace.
As we face obstacles, trials, and tests in this life, there is always the
hope that we’re almost to our goal; we’re almost to Heaven.
